§26 



Successfully 

 carried into 

 cifcct at Sea 



by Mr. Kru- 

 senstcrn. 



0:St PRfiSJSRTmG WAtER,, &C. 



National Institute of France, the result of an esperiment 

 on the property of charcoal to preserve water. He had 

 four mouths before that time filled with water two casks, 

 one of which had its internal surface burned. The wa- 

 ter it contained proved fit for use, and without any bad 

 flavour; while that in the other cask, which had not been 

 so prepared, was so much corrupted that the smell was 

 intolerable. 



The Court Gazette of Petersburgh, of May 30 last, 

 contains an account of the success which this process was 

 attended with in the ship of Captain Krusenstern. 



He writes from Kamschatka, the 8th July 1805, to 

 Mr. Schubert, of Petersburgh, that during his stay at 

 Copenhagen a journal* fell into his hands, in which this 

 process is indicated by a French chemist ; that he imme- 

 diately caused the internal surface of 50 or 60 casks to 

 be burned within in a much more effectual manner than is 

 usually done in ships of war, where the charring being 

 only slight, the advantages are also very trifling. 



During his stay at the Brazils, Mr. Krusenstern also 

 caused the greatest part of his casks to be burned inside; 

 and during the whole of his passage as far as the Isle of 

 Washington, the water in these casks was constantly- 

 found to be good. In order to maintain the cleanliness 



* This journal is probably that of M. M. PfalF and Friedlander 

 which was printed at Leipzic under the title of Die nsuesten entdec* 

 kungen FransosUcher gelehrten, \^c. It contains, in the Number for 

 May 1803, an extract of the memoir of Bcrthollet on this subject; 

 the author of that article thinks he recollects that Lord Macartney 

 had before used powdered charcoal in his provision of Water* for hi» 

 voyage to China; but this does not take away the priority of car- 

 bonizing the inner surface of the casks,— Note of the Author. 



The author proceeds to express his doubts whether charcoal wa» 

 really used for this purpose in that voyage, but I have thought it 

 jieedless to translate his remarks, because it is certain that Lowitz, 

 to whom the merit of the first discoveries of the active power of 

 charcoal in purifying and otherwise changing a great number of 

 bodies, did very early apply it to the purifying and preserving na- 

 tural waters. See three volumes of Memoirs translated from Crell's 

 Journal, and published in London in 1793, by Baldwin. Thepro- 

 cess of clarifying muddy water by a very minute addition of alum, 

 which is mentioned in the same voyage as practised in Chiaa> ha» 

 Veen long known, and in common use here.— N. 



ef 



